The bad intentions that often precede violence originate in a specific brain region, according to a study in mice led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and published in Nature Neuroscience online March 7. The work is the first, say the study authors, to tie warning signs of premeditated violence — stalking, bullying, and possibly sexual aggression — to a distinct part of the hypothalamus, the brain region that also controls body temperature, hunger and sleep in mammals. The structure is anatomically known as the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus, or VMHvl, because of its central location inside the brain on the underside of the hypothalamus. “Our study pinpoints the brain circuits essential to the aggressive motivations that build up as animals prepare to attack,” says study senior…